Furnace.



J. R. FORTUNE.

PURNAGE. APPLIOATIQN FILED JULY 12, 1910. 994,830, Patented June 13, 1911.

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FURNACE.

senese. x

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented June 13, 1911.

Application filed July 12, 1910. Serial No. 571,586.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, JOHN R. FORTUNE, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnaces, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

In furnaces of the class of automatic stokers in which feed hoppers are employed to supply coal to the furnace and automatic devices are employed to feed the coal from said hoppers on to the grate bars, and in furnaces of this class where a forced draft is created by means of blowing air into t-he fire chamber, it is found that the accelerated draft causes the fire to burn up into the lower ends of the hoppers, over-heating the walls thereof and also causes gases liberated by the burning of the coal to pass out through the open upper ends of the hoppers and escape into the boiler room.

The object of this invention is to so construct and arrange a furnace of the above described class employing a forced draft, as to prevent the burning of the coal within the hoppers and the escape of gas therefrom.

A' further object is to provide certain other new and useful features in the construction and arrangement of parts, all as hereinafter more fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims vreference being had to the accompanying drawing in which,

The figure represents a transverse vertical section through a furnace embodying the invention.

In the drawing 1, 1 represent the side walls of the furnace which support, at a distance above the floor 2 thereof, by means of suitable brackets 3, the coking plates 4 adjacent to which plates the upper ends of inclined grate bars 5 are supported. The lower ends of these bars are supported by a grate bearer 6 wit-hin which is the usual rotatable clinker bar 7, and certain of the grate bars are moved inthe usual manner by the rock shafts 8 extending through openings in the lower end of said bars.

Above the coking plates 4 are suitable magazines 9, the outer walls 10 of which are spaced from the side walls 1 of the furnace and the inner walls of which hoppers are formed by arch plates 11. These arch plates are each formed near their lower ends with `a laterally extending rib 12 to engage grooves in the fire brick 13 forming the edges of an arch 14 which springs across the space between the arch plates over the lire chamber. The brick 1 3 are preferably formed with air passages 15 extending therethough and communicating with the space above the arch, the lower ends of the passages opening through the inner face of the arch adjacent to the coking plates.

The throat or lower end of each magazine is formed in the usual manner by an inclined plate 16 beneath which a stoker box 17 slides upon the coking plate, said box being actuated in the usual manner by means of a rock shaft 18 provided with a series of gear segments 19 engaging teeth on the box.

Above the magazines 9 are magazines 20 separated from the magazines 9 by suitable slides 21 movable in grooves 22 formed in the Walls of the. magazines and above the magazine 20 are suitable hoppers 23 separated from the magazines 20 by means of slides 24 movable in Suitable grooves 25 formed in the sides of the magazines.

A suitable pipe 26 through which air is forced under pressure is rovided with discharge openings 27 opening into chambers 28 in the lower part of the furnace below the grate bars 5 to force air into thefurnace and accelerate the draft. The air is free to pass through the grate bars into the fire chamber and from said chamber into the lower ends of the magazines. Passages 29 communicating with the upper ends of said chambers 28 are formed for the air by spac- ,ing the outer edges of the coking plates 4 from the walls 1 of theafurnace, by means of the brackets 3. rI`hese passages or conduits 29 extend upward between the walls 1 and the outer walls 10 of the magazines 9, and suitable openings 30 are provided in the walls 10 of the magazines near the slides 21 to permit air under pressure to enter the upper ends of said magazines 9. The air entering the upper ends of said magazines neutralizes the pressure of the air entering the lower ends of the magazines from the fire chamber and thus the tendency of the draft to cause the fire to burn up into the magazine is overcome.

Coal is fed to the magazines 9 by firstopening the slides 24 thus admitting coal from the hoppers 23 to the magazines 20. Said slides are then closed and the slides 21 opened to allow the coal contained in the magazines 20 to fall into the magazines 9. The upper ends of the magazines are thus always closed so that a constant air pressure is maintained within the upper ends of the magazines through the air passages 29 and the esca e of gas through -the hoppers is eifectualy prevented by said closures and also by the air entering the upper ends of said magazines which causes a down draft therein effectually excluding gas therefrom.

By spacing the coking plates from the walls 1 of the furnace, any ash, fine coal or other residue which may work through between the plates 16 and the stoker boxes 17 and fall behind said boxes, will be pushed fr om the outer edges of the coking plate and fall through the opening to the furnace floor below, and thus clogging of the stoker boxes by an accumulation between the same and the furnace walls is prevented.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is l. In a furnace, the combination of al fire chamber having a fuel support therein, means for automatically feeding fuel into said chamber, an air chamber communicating with the re chamber through the fuel support and having a wall forming one side of the chamber, means for supplying air under pressure to said air chamber, a magazine above said feeding means having an open lower end from which the fuel is fed into the fire chamber by said feeding means, and means for supporting and spacing one side of said magazine from said wall to form an air passage communicating through the side of the magazine near its upper end with the interior thereof.

2. In a furnace the combination of a series of grate bars, a lire chamber above the bars,

'.ing one side thereof, means for supplying air under pressure to the air chamber, means for automatically feeding fuel to the grate y bars, a magazine for holding a supply of fuel located above the feeding means Land provided with an open loweend`and openings in its side wall near the upper end thereof, said side wall being spaced from said wall forming the side of said air chamber to form an air passage communicating at its lower end with the air chamber and at its upper end with the interior of the magazine through said openings in the wall of the magazine, andbrackets on the furnace wall for supporting the feeding means with a space between said means and wall.

3. In a furnace the combination of inclined grate bars, a horizontally extending coking plate at the upper ends of said bars, stoker boxes reciprocable upon said plate, means for actuating said boxes, a magazine above the coking plate having an open lower end from which fuel is fed to the upper ends of the grate bars by the movement of said stoker boxes, means for closing the upper f end of said magazine and a wall spaced from the vertical side wall of the magazine and from one edge of the coking plate to form an air passage opening into the space below t-he grate bars and communicating at its upper end with the interior of the magazine, and means for supplying air under pressure to the space below the grate bars.

4. In a furnace the combination of side walls, magazines having outer Walls spaced from said side walls to form air passages between, said outer walls of-said magazines being formed with openings to admit air from said air passages into the upper ends of the magazines, an arch extending across between the inner walls of the magazines, coking plates below the lower open ends of the magazines, brackets on said side walls for supporting the outer edges of the coking plates and spacing said edges from said walls, stoker boxes reciprocable upon said plates to feed fuel from the lower open ends of the magazines, inclined grate bars with their upper ends adjacent to the inner edges of the coking plates, means for supplying air under pressure to the space below the grate` bars and to said air'passages, means for supplying fuel to' the upper ends of the magazines, and means for closing the upper ends of the magazines adapted to be opened to admit fuel thereto. v

In testimony whereof I aix my signature lin presence of two witnesses.

JOHN R. FORTUNE.

Witnesses:

LEWIS E. FLANDERS, O'mo F. BARTHEL. 

